Platform: iOS, Android

Surviving in a town overrun with zombies is tough. We get that. Scavenging for food, desperately hailing survivors, and attempting to expand your territory while fighting off infected hordes can tax just about anyone's resolve. And let's not even get into drafting a constitution with the undead knocking on your door! In the iOS version of Rebuild, the captivating zombie survival strategysimulation browser game from Sarah Northway, you get to do all of those things, plus repair a broken helicopter, raid a bar, and help scientists work on secret research projects!

You begin with a few people and a few plots of land, just enough to stay alive. Expanding your territory is essential to winning (and surviving), so every turn you'll probably invest a few resources into striking out into the black unknown, just to see what's there. You can scout nearby buildings to see what they offer, and if someone happens to be there, you can attempt to recruit them. Food can often be found by scavenging empty buildings, and zombies occupy a fair number of unexplored squares. Finally, once you clear everything out, you can reclaim a piece of land to annex it into your town.

Everyone needs a place to live, so you have to make sure you've got enough homesteads to house survivors. Food is also a concern, as is happiness, so expanding to include farms and churches is also important. The real fun part, though, is uncovering unique buildings and stumbling across crazy events. Do you think a helipad might be useful? How about an infested subway system? Schoolhouse? Laboratory? Convenience store loaded with booze? Rebuild throws handfuls of interesting events your way, both good and bad, and managing them is just as fun as managing the rest of your blossoming survival camp!

Analysis: Rebuild for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch is essentially a reworked version of Rebuild 2, a game that stirred more than a little attention when it was released. The original Rebuild even took the top prize for Best Simulation or Strategy in our Best of 2011 feature! On the mobile devices, gameplay is largely unchanged. There are multiple ways to win, most of which are a secret until you stumble across them, and the point and click interface fits itself well into a poke and tap environment.

The brilliant part of Rebuild is how it manages to give you a complex game that can be played in a simple sort of way. Each character has a set of stats, for example, that determine how efficient they are at fighting, laboratory research, repairs, etc. When you assign someone a task, the game automatically chooses a well-suited candidate for you, but you can always change job assignments if you want to get down and dirty with managing your people. You can even find equipment caches that give stat bonuses, like the dog that adds offensive and leadership skills.

Rebuild is a scalable experience that lets you choose difficulty, city size, and a few other variables before the game even begins. If you've only got a few minutes, you can charge in and rescue a small city in half an hour. If you want the full Rebuild experience, though, you'll crank the difficulty up and work with a massive swath of land. Both work well in the mobile environment, as it's easy to stop in the middle of a game and pick up where you left off at a later time.

Rebuild is an excellent strategy game that performed well in the browser scene. Now that it's on portable devices, you can tote your city with you wherever you go. Be warned, though, that once you start, you won't be able to stop. Rebuild has that "just one more turn" hook that will keep you pushing to explore just one more square, liberate just one more building, and research just one more ability. It's a near-perfect casual strategy game, no matter what device you play it on!

Rebuild

(universal)

Rebuild

(Android)

NOTE: This game was played and reviewed on an iPad. Game was available in the North American market at the time of publication, but may not be available in other territories. Please see individual app market pages for purchasing info.

Equipment is not permanently attached to people, so feel free to give them whatever suits the job they're doing.

The only requirement to reclaim a square is killing all the zombies. The survivors will move elsewhere for recruiting later, so only wait to reclaim if you need more supplies from it.

In more dangerous squares, it is more beneficial to kill the zombies before scavenging/recruiting.

It takes more play time, but changing out who's on guard duty (or farming, etc.) will help increase your number of effective soldiers/scavengers.

The above is also a good reason to have an extra person tag along for reclaiming/recruiting jobs.

Research is important, pick and choose carefully: communication research gets you random survivors, zombie research makes all survivors more effective killers, food research puts less strain on needing farms/farmers or scavenging for food.

Be careful about what you build: labs and schools are permanent and cannot be changed into other buildings.

It is usually a couple of game weeks before the first zombie horde attacks, so wait until then to worry about guard duty.

A Guide to All 4 Endings

#1 - Escape by Helicopter

The helicopter is always sabotaged as soon as the heliport is reclaimed.

You need to acquire the right parts, tools and expertise.

There are two different ways of acquiring each one.

The first is that they're randomly gained.

Parts: a trade with Gustav.

If you take the cure instead, nothing happens as it's bogus.

Tools: by researching electricity.

Expertise: by having someone read a helicopter manual.

About a game month after the sabotage, it should be ready to fix.

From this ending, you can start a new game taking up to five of your current survivors.

#2 - Defeat the Last Judgement Gang

First you must find the subway.

Shortly after fortifying both ends, you will discover a hidden route to their HQ.

A few days after that, you will come across an escapee whom you must feed to hear her story.

About two/three weeks after fortifying the subway, you will be ready to attack the gang (it's beneficial to ask the Riffs for help).

#3 - Discover Zombieism Cure

Two days after completing your first research, a crazy scientist will show up. Let him in.

About a week later he will demand an assistant.

Many days later (once he asked before an assistant) he will request a samples from a zombie horde.

The horde's movements toward your base are predictable, so as they get close, just send someone on a mission in the square they will be in the next turn.

It is still possible to complete this ending if you reclaim all the squares before you collect a sample.

About a game month after he shows up, there will be an explosion at the lab.

After investigating the explosion and translating his notes, you can continue his research from any lab.

Note: he once asked for the body of a dead dog for research. Obliging him lessened the wait for the explosion.

#4 - Draft a Constitution

First you must reclaim the required number of squares (indicated at the top, but you'll also receive notices when you've reached it).

Next, you should reclaim city hall.

Lastly, start drafting a constitution from city hall, which requires ten people with some leadership skill.

From this ending, you can start a new game taking up to five of your current survivors.

Tips to Beating Impossible Difficulty

Be sure to read the general tips first.

The easiest advantage is first completing the game on an easier difficult and taking your five most skilled people to the impossible city.

At the beginning of the game, your main concern should be food. So you should do your best to reclaim farms/suburbs in the area.

Scouting is essential so that you can determine in which direction to reclaim the blocks since they have to all be adjacent to each other.

High risks can pay better than playing it safe. A good number to shoot for is danger no more than about 30%. If you are trying to scavenge for equipment, that should be at least 50%, if you can.

Getting a lab quickly is a good idea as the food researches help you from needing to have committed farmers.

Expanding your area into a corner helps keep down the perimeter from which the zombies can attack you.

Happiness will become an issue. Be sure to have good leaders preaching/bartending (Gustav's love caravan also comes in handy if you can spare the food).

The ending you choose depends on your city layout/situation.

The constitution ending is the most straightforward with the least amount of randomness.

If you can find the heliport early, that could be your route.

Same with the subway for the Last Judgement ending.

The cure ending takes the most time and effort, so that is least likely. Though if you're trying for all four in one game, it'll probably be your last one achieved.

It's called impossible difficulty for a reason! Good luck!!

NB: We originally posted this strategy guide here. Thanks to Kyh for the guide!

Posted by:
Mike |
February 13, 2012 2:20 PM

8 Comments

I was just replaying this game the other day and joining the discussion at Kong about porting it to iPod...ask my sister, I just yelled "EEK!" when I saw this! Immediately followed by "Noooooooo!" Wish devs didn't leave out the thousands of players still using Gen2 iPods and before. Sigh.

Equipment is not permanently attached to people, so feel free to give them whatever suits the job they're doing.

The only requirement to reclaim a square is killing all the zombies. The survivors will move elsewhere for recruiting later, so only wait to reclaim if you need more supplies from it.

In more dangerous squares, it is more beneficial to kill the zombies before scavenging/recruiting.

It takes more play time, but changing out who's on guard duty (or farming, etc.) will help increase your number of effective soldiers/scavengers.

The above is also a good reason to have an extra person tag along for reclaiming/recruiting jobs.

Research is important, pick and choose carefully: communication research gets you random survivors, zombie research makes all survivors more effective killers, food research puts less strain on needing farms/farmers or scavenging for food.

Be careful about what you build: labs and schools are permanent and cannot be changed into other buildings.

It is usually a couple of game weeks before the first zombie horde attacks, so wait until then to worry about guard duty.

A Guide to All 4 Endings

#1 - Escape by Helicopter

The helicopter is always sabotaged as soon as the heliport is reclaimed.

You need to acquire the right parts, tools and expertise.

There are two different ways of acquiring each one.

The first is that they're randomly gained.

Parts: a trade with Gustav.

If you take the cure instead, nothing happens as it's bogus.

Tools: by researching electricity.

Expertise: by having someone read a helicopter manual.

About a game month after the sabotage, it should be ready to fix.

From this ending, you can start a new game taking up to five of your current survivors.

#2 - Defeat the Last Judgement Gang

First you must find the subway.

Shortly after fortifying both ends, you will discover a hidden route to their HQ.

A few days after that, you will come across an escapee whom you must feed to hear her story.

About two/three weeks after fortifying the subway, you will be ready to attack the gang (it's beneficial to ask the Riffs for help).

#3 - Discover Zombieism Cure

Two days after completing your first research, a crazy scientist will show up. Let him in.

About a week later he will demand an assistant.

Many days later (once he asked before an assistant) he will request a samples from a zombie horde.

The horde's movements toward your base are predictable, so as they get close, just send someone on a mission in the square they will be in the next turn.

It is still possible to complete this ending if you reclaim all the squares before you collect a sample.

About a game month after he shows up, there will be an explosion at the lab.

After investigating the explosion and translating his notes, you can continue his research from any lab.

Note: he once asked for the body of a dead dog for research. Obliging him lessened the wait for the explosion.

#4 - Draft a Constitution

First you must reclaim the required number of squares (indicated at the top, but you'll also receive notices when you've reached it).

Next, you should reclaim city hall.

Lastly, start drafting a constitution from city hall, which requires ten people with some leadership skill.

From this ending, you can start a new game taking up to five of your current survivors.

Tips to Beating Impossible Difficulty

Be sure to read the general tips first.

The easiest advantage is first completing the game on an easier difficult and taking your five most skilled people to the impossible city.

At the beginning of the game, your main concern should be food. So you should do your best to reclaim farms/suburbs in the area.

Scouting is essential so that you can determine in which direction to reclaim the blocks since they have to all be adjacent to each other.

High risks can pay better than playing it safe. A good number to shoot for is danger no more than about 30%. If you are trying to scavenge for equipment, that should be at least 50%, if you can.

Getting a lab quickly is a good idea as the food researches help you from needing to have committed farmers.

Expanding your area into a corner helps keep down the perimeter from which the zombies can attack you.

Happiness will become an issue. Be sure to have good leaders preaching/bartending (Gustav's love caravan also comes in handy if you can spare the food).

The ending you choose depends on your city layout/situation.

The constitution ending is the most straightforward with the least amount of randomness.

If you can find the heliport early, that could be your route.

Same with the subway for the Last Judgement ending.

The cure ending takes the most time and effort, so that is least likely. Though if you're trying for all four in one game, it'll probably be your last one achieved.

It's called impossible difficulty for a reason! Good luck!!

NB: We originally posted this strategy guide here. Thanks to Kyh for the guide!

Hi dsrtrosy! I know that feeling. (Resisting urge to type "I know that feel, bro.") As it happens, Rebuild has been out for iOS for a while, but I believe Sarah only recently was able to optimise it to run on first generation iPads where before it needed an iPad 2 to run. So it's clearly on her mind, but it sounds like it takes some doing.

I think as more and more new generations of iOS devices keep coming out, we're sadly going to see developers moving forward with their games as well. It's already starting to happen; there're a lot of neat iOS titles I can't play because they require an iPad 2. Technology marches on, I guess, but that's not always bad. Just the other day I was remembering how when you rented games for the SNES you only had a few save slots ON the cartridge, and I'd always slip a note in the rental case like "please don't save over #3!"... but of course they always did. Just compare that to today's memory cards and cloud saves.

I'm so glad I can take this game with me wherever I go! easy mode was kinda difficult for me (though I've never been that good at games,) thankfully the loan shark came around to prevent my people from starving XD

Does anyone know about the new ending/content in the iOS version regarding your main character...

where you can choose to take supplies, a radio, medicines from your new city and if things get rough, escape to a relative's cabin on the outskirt's of the city? I have been able to hoard these items from my city (very selfishly) but I haven't yet found a different ending.

I love the guard towers in this version, but you have to be careful -- you can't turn a guard tower into something else once the perimeter of your re-salvaged city expands!

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